YouTube, the video platform of Google, said on Tuesday it expects its user base in India to double to over 800 million as more consumers, particularly in smaller towns and rural areas, get access to affordable internet that would help them access videos on their mobile phones.

India has a base of more than 930 million mobile subscribers, of which over 300 million use smartphones that allows them to access internet on the go. For YouTube, 85 per cent of the content streamed on its video channels is consumed on mobile phones, which has seen a fourfold increase over the past year.

“India is one of the most exciting markets and the global leadership is interested in India,” said Ajay Vidyasagar, regional director-Google Asia Pacific. “The growth will be led by rural markets, which have been growing more than urban market.”

Reliance Jio, which launched last year, has seen its user base at nearly 110 million. Its push to target low-income users with a feature phone that allows users to access video content is expected to increase video consumption in the country.

For the online video platform, YouTube India is the one of the fastest-growing markets globally and already in the top 10. The company which started with English content, went to Hindi and now it sees good traction from regional languages.

For example, Rajinikanth’s Kabali teaser had around 34 million views, which was more than the trailer for the new Star Wars movie. YouTube on Tuesday recognised Chennai-based YouTube-focused kids channel ChuChuTv with its diamond play button, for surpassing 10 million subscribers with only 154 videos.

YouTube, which has been relying on advertising revenue till now in India, may look at subscription-based revenue going forward. Now, only the US and Korea are the two markets, which have subscription-based revenue.

It’s ready in 5 mins with no chopping, so flavourful and much lighter than rice – and veegs!

The effort in this wonderful side dish, in these more western parts at least, is sourcing the ingredients.

According to our roving reporter who bought this recipe back with her from a friend in South India, it has to be extra course semolina, and one must, but must, use fresh curry leaves at all times – dried will not do. And you can’t omit the urad dhal either. All very well in South India, bit of a mish to find these things here. Thankfully we live in hackers. They’re not available all the time but when I see them I grab them up – and then I make this.

Hopefully you’ll be able to find the extra course semolina and urad dhal (white interior of the split urad bean) at a Turkish food shop, and we’ve also had decent results with just plain old course semolina if you can’t get yer hands on any of the good stuff!

Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the mustard seeds then the cumin and let them splutter for a moment before adding the whole chillies. Add the urad dhal and the curry leaves, stir and cook until the dhal starts to go darker. At that point add the turmeric and ginger and give it all a good stir about.

Add the semolina to the pan and mix it up well. Dissolve the sugar and salt in your cup of hot stock and add that into the pan and turn the heat down to low.

Now, in one way or another, it’s going to look like a disaster at this point. It is highly likely to form a fairly solid block even, but panic not, keep stirring and breaking it up and a lighter texture will suddenly emerge. What’s equally as likely is a gloppy mixture that looks as though it will never dry out but it’s amazing how quickly this dish comes together in front of your eyes!

Chuck in the coconut and stir through, then give it a squeeze of lime juice and top with coriander and a little sprinkle of coconut just before you serve it.

Truly delish.

Recipe is received with hugest thanks from Shalan Sirur from Pune in Maharashtra.

We’ll fess up, it took 3 attempts. We’ve made mistakes, learnt lessons and are passing those savings on to you. All that ‘info’ is at the end of the recipe and worth a read before you start fermentin’.

Attempt #1 we left it in the coolest corner of the kitchen for its 5 day ferment but as it was the lead up to Christmas the kitchen was too darn hot. As a consequence our ferment went mouldy on day 3 – not cool. So… get yer chillies into the coolest place in your house to ferment

Attempt #2 armed with the knowledge we’d over heated the last batch but that it had otherwise been successful we we’re a bit slap dash on the ratios and that was a massive error. If the mix doesn’t reach a high enough acidity it doesn’t ferment properly, a symptom of which can be a surface layer of a yeast called kahm yeast. Kahm yeast is harmless and if you wish you could just scrape it off and carry on, however, it can give the ferment a slightly off taste and as we were making them as presents we didn’t want to risk either the taste of the sriracha or the good health of the recipients in continuing. We fairly believe the lack of acidity was down to having too many red peppers to chillies which made the ferment mix too watery, and not enough salt as well perhaps. So…. take care to get the ratios right going in

Attempt #3 resulted in “Wow! You’ve done it, you’ve made actual sriracha” and he was right. It tasted exactly as sriracha should. So… we got there in the end

* As we had a rusty old bottle of fish sauce lurking in the back of the fridge from our pre-flexitarian days, we did. Better to use it up I suppose, though it’s the opposite of climate kind to be sure. We’re going to do some experimentin’ of our own to find a vegan way to create that unmistakable sriracha taste. Wish us luck, we’ll be back with the results.

This week saw the release of much-awaited Raees starring Shah Rukh Khan (the movie was in the making and then in the cans for the longest time ever). The movie promos gave a perception that it had the best recipe for a sure shot hit. With few catchy dialogues thrown in – Baniye Ka Dimaag Aur Miyan Bhai Ki Daring…. a special item number with Sunny Leone thrown in for the front benchers. Some daredevilry fights punched in. And, overall the biggest star of the country SRK leading the way ahead. But, did the recipe actually work for Rahul ‘Parzania’ Dholakia and Farhan Akhtar‘s production house that we will have to wait and watch at the box office. Coming to the movie, let’s analyze if it was worth the wait.

Shah Rukh Khan plays Raees a spectacled goon who hates being called “battery”. He and his childhood friend cum sidekick (Mohammad Zeeshan Ayub) – how can a hero be without a sidekick; start from harmless Ponzi schemes to pre-planned rackets and becomes the top bootlegger of his town. How can a story about a criminal be complete without a police officer; so Raees meets his equal when ACP Majmudar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is posted in his area. Raees forms a nexus with politicians who fuel his business, but he soon becomes the thorn in their side. No Hindi film hero can be complete without a lady love and therefore we have Mahira Khan added to the cast to give some respite to Raees’ character whenever he is tired of running his criminal activities and cat and mouse game with the police.

The problem is with the script in totality. Rahul Dholakia and his writers have not offered anything new that we have not seen in earlier movies. Just putting the characters in 70’s and 80’s does not bring novelty to a plot. Even Shah Rukh’s performance is hampered because of the shoddy screenplay. Also, it is high time SRK did some analysis of his atrocious choices of movies after Chak De India. We want better movies from you Shah Rukh.

Nawazuddin, as usual, is good in his character but again the story and screenplay is the villain here. Even a wonderful performer like Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub as well as Atul Kulkarni are wasted in insignificant roles. Casting of Mahira Khan in the movie and creating a controversy around her was all a hoax. Any junior artist could have done her role.

Coming to the music. Ram Sampath does a decent job but the songs sound very jaded and very 90’s. Cinematography by K.U. Mohanan is first rate. Action scenes are okay and in few places, we feel the action director got confused if he was making a Superman or Batman or Antman movie and has made SRK perform like one. Editing by Deepa Bhatia could have been crispier especially in the second half. Coming to direction, I would rather advise Rahul Dholakia to make his brand of movies like Parzania than attempt potboilers that do not make any sense at all.

The recently released trailer of Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming flick Raees has already created history by crossing 100K likes in 3 hours and 35 minutes, making it the fastest trailer to cross 100K likes.

Following the unveiling of the two and a half minute trailer, the hashtag #RaeesTrailer was trending on social media all day, as fans and critics shared their excitement about the film. The film’s spokesperson shared in exultation, “We are extremely happy that the trailer has got such a phenomenal response, the team has worked very hard on the film and we all are extremely excited!”

Raees hasn’t had a smooth going. First, its original release date — Eid 2016 — had to be set aside, to avoid a clash with Salman Khan’s Sultan. Then, the new date chosen for Raees’ release — Republic Day 2017 — was found to be in direct conflict with Hrithik Roshan’s Kaabil.Even as these issues weighed Raees down, a bigger storm was brewing.
As anti-Pakistan sentiment simmered in India after the Uri attacks in September that left several of our military personnel dead, there were calls to boycott all artistes from across the border. Raees was among the films struck really hard (the other film was Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which had a cameo by Fawad Khan) as it marked the Bollywood debut of Pakistani actress Mahira Khan.

The storm has now settled, and despite calls to replace Mahira, she still continues to be Shah Rukh’s love interest in the film (although reports say her role has indeed been trimmed considerably, in order to avoid backlash).

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Sat, 26 Nov 2016 08:35:55 +0000Kishorehttps://movieloversarena.wordpress.com/go/drama/dear-zindagi-2016/It is One of the brilliant movies I have watched recently & I am sure its always going to be there in my list. The concept of the movie is very good & realistic. Gauri Shinde has beautifully presented it that it directly connects with the audience.

The script,execution & not to forget the dialogues of the movie, everything is great. One of my personal favourite dialogue is “Don’t Let Your Past BlackMail Your Present To Ruin Your Beautiful Future”. The movie is about a young beautiful girl named Kaira, who wants to live her life to the fullest but her past is not allowing her to do that. So she seeks help from therapist named Dr. Jehangir Khan A.K.A. Jug, who teaches her that life is actually very simple & shows her the ways to accept & enjoy life. Some scenes in the movie are WOW like Jug(Shahrukh) showing Kaira(Alia), how to play kabaddi with occean.

Now coming to performances as we all know that Shahrukh Khan is one of the brilliant actor in bollywood & in this movie too he amazes us with his talent & charm.I personally think that no other actor would have played this role better than him. Alia on the other hand, what an amazing actress she has become. She is continuously surprising us with her talent.Apart from lead actors other artists have also played very well especially to mention Yashaswini Dayama (Playing role of Jackie).We would love to see her soon.

This movie is must see for everyone regardless of how much happy or sad they are from their life. I am sure everyone will get something worthy from it & I think we should fully support these type of movies so that we can see more in the future.

Philosophy in Bollywood has always been a risk, at times the gamble is worth taking and many times it turns out to be a regret. ‘Guzarish’ and ‘Roy’ both tried to be immensely philosophical and failed to grip the audience into what they delivered. ‘Anand’ is the most successful film in this genre just because it mixed well with entertainment as well. ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ can be brought under this shed but it was more of a romantic film although Shah Rukh Khan portrays a similar role in ‘Dear Zindagi (DZ)’.

DZ starts with introducing us to the cinematographer Kiara (Alia Bhatt) who loves her job and is still looking for a big break, even though she lives in an apartment which is nowhere close to suggesting struggle. Then slowly the troubled and clueless Kiara steps in, just like every teenager these days who like to be independent and don’t like mom asking them what to cook for them, she has parent-issues and obviously relationship issues. So she decides to go to a DD – Dimaag ka Doctor (Psychiatrist) – and there she meets Dr. Jehangir Khan (SRK) who, in all his charm, has a unique perspective to life.

After 4 years of ‘English Vinglish’, a lot would have been expected from the director Gauri Shinde and here she delivers just right as a director. As a writer she fails to engage audience throughout but as a director she compensates and still makes the film worth watching. A lot could be debated on why it was necessary to throw in the slight love angle in the last moments but that still fits in well as it was just a brush-a-go and it was a good move to not linger on it for long. The introduction of Kiara’s vulnerable side is what really tests our patience, which could have been toned down. The dialogues are the third selling point in DZ after the two mesmerizing leads. Dialogues may have felt elongated to many but I am sure after the film they would feel pleased to have heard one of the most beautiful dialogues in recent times. The last lesson in the film given by Jehangir to Kiara is the one to ponder upon the most by all, where he explains why finding a perfect relationship is unfair. The cluelessness in the plot regarding the protagonist in parts where even the viewers won’t know why she is doing what she doing is because even the character doesn’t know and that is the perfectly executed part in the film.

The technical department excels. The misc-en-scene in each scene is surreal, costumes by Anaita Shroff Adajania are as mesmerizing as the visuals through Laxman Utekar’s lens. Lyricist Kausar Munir totally does justice to the anthem song – Love You ZIndagi – and even to the romantic ballads – Tu Hi Hai & Taarefon Se. Amit Trivedi doesn’t do much variations with songs here and still makes every song unique and that proves his talent once again.

Shah Rukh Khan is coming back to his classic days after the terrible run in awful films like ‘Happy New Year’ & ‘Dilwale’. Here he reminds us of Aman from ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ but here he is directly labelled as a therapist. He acts as a mentor to Kiara and proves why he was the best choice for the role as he always blends the perfect intensity for a dialogue. His rugged and ruffish look totally suits the Goan setting and he never fails to deliver what is expected of him when he does such roles. Every time he comes up in DZ, everyone pays attention and his charm is the cherry on cake.

Alia Bhatt as Kiara is the best part about DZ, her rapid and immense growth as an actor is a sure sign that kids from Bollywood families aren’t always unworthy but some are equally deserving too. Her last film ‘Udta Punjab’ was more challenging for her but here too she delivers top-notch performance. She totally gets in the character and that is why her emotions feel so real, her rant on parenting issues seems so true to life. Her every emotion could be felt as a viewer because she has reached a whole new level of acting in her career and he makes sure that she makes her impression last for really long.

The best part about Gauri Shinde as director is that even with so many scenes riding on dialogues, she makes sure that humor always stays near so that philosophy doesn’t doze off the viewers and this aspect is the main thing which makes DZ a must watch.

Furlenco and Red Chillies have also launched a TVC and an exclusive ‘Dear Zindagi’ store for the movie buffs.

Ajith Mohan Karimpana, CEO of Furlenco, said, “Our primary target market is millennials between the age groups of 24-40. This is exactly the demographic that relates to ‘Dear Zindagi’ and its emphasis on living life on one’s own terms. The subscription-led model has already proved to be a huge success in India and through the association with Red Chillies Entertainment, we are sure to drive greater propensity for the same in the furniture market as well.”

Millennials, today, increasingly veer towards ‘experiences’ (travel, technology, gadgets) and not possessions (house, car, furniture). For this globally-connected generation, the idea of ownership and commitment has perished. While Dear Zindagi celebrates such freedom from stereotypical notions of “settling down”, Furlenco claims to make it a reality for its customers by renting the furniture they want.

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Wed, 02 Nov 2016 02:54:30 +0000mredlich21https://dontcallitbollywood.com/go/everything-else/shahrukh/happy-birthday-shahrukh-in-india/It’s not yet November 2 in America, but it already is in India, so I am going to go ahead and start celebrating. Sort of.

I just took the cake out of the oven, step one in the process is done, here it is in its current state.

Lovely, right? And very red. I could say because of “red Indians”, but I won’t, because that’s terrible on many levels. Instead I will say it is because of Red Chillies.

And this picture

And this song

(But mostly because I wanted red velvet cake. Shahrukh would want me to be happy, right?)

The latest in the line of calling things steak, please delight with us in the wonder that is the red cabbage steak.

Our favourite vegan steak to date.

1hr tops | serves 4 | easy | vegan

Ingredients

1 large red cabbage

3 tbsp olive oil

cooking oil

40g blanched hazelnuts

1 large red chilli

small bunch mint

1/2 lemon, zest and juice

1 tbsp maple syrup

Method

Whack yee oven up to 200°C. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, and leaving the stalk intact, cut 4 x 2cm thick steaks. Gotta say, this isn’t the easiest of tasks, make sure you’re using a good, sharp knife for the job and be careful!

Brush both sides of the steaks with cooking oil, season and put on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Roast for 30-40 minutes until golden and a knife pierces the stalk easily, turning halfway through.

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan until they’re golden. Tip out and leave to cool for a bit, then roughly chop. Pop into a bowl with the chilli, mint, lemon juice and zest, maple syrup and olive oil. Season and drizzle over the steaks.

It tastes reet good, and that’s all that matters really, that and its vegan credentials. Yup.

25 mins | serves 4 | doddle

Ingredients

200g durum/Italian vermicelli, there abouts

1/2 red onion, finely sliced

2 spring onions, sliced diagonally

1/2 cucumber

big handful beansprouts

handful sugar snap peas, sliced diagonally

handful edamame beans – frozen’s easiest these days but defrost em first obvs

couple o’chillies, red, finely sliced on the diagonal

handful each of coriander and mint, roughly chopped

dressing:

125ml olive oil

100ml white wine vinegar

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 lime, juice

Method

Start by plunging the vermicelli into a pan of salted boiling water and cook for 3 mins for an al dente bite. Drain immediately, drizzle with a little olive oil, give it a shake around and set it aside to cool.

Put all the dressing ingredients in a small jar, whack a lid on and give it a vigorous shaking. Pop it in the fridge while you prep the veg.

Wash it all, the veg that is, and chop as necessary. With the cucumber cut it in half lengthwise, remove the seeds with a tea spoon and then slice diagonally.

When you’re happy with the temperature of the noodles, layer up including the herbs, give the dressing a damn good shake and pour over the salad. (Some of those crispy fried shallots would go down a treat sprinkled over this if you can get your hands on some at an Asian supermarket. We couldn’t, alas but we made do with the veritable pile of veggies this already is!)

Inspiration came from emsfoodforfriends, with a few l’il twists and turns along the way.

In a food processor roughly blitz the garlic, lemongrass, ginger and chillies. If you don’t have a processor, no biggie, just roughly chop everything. Add a splash of olive oil to the hot wok then transfer the blitzed up paste and the curry sachets. Add the chicken and fry for 5 minutes.

Pour in the coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar/xylitol and simmer for about 15 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, slice the sugar snap peas, spring onions and chillies. Add the chilli to a small bowl a long with the soy sauce. Add the peas to the mixture and turn off the heat.

Now it’s time to serve, evenly distribute the rice and curry to bowls, top with the sliced sugar snaps, spring onions, a little bit of the chilli soy sauce and a few torn leaves of basil.

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Mon, 04 Jul 2016 08:55:25 +0000jjdearhttps://charliebigpotatoes.org/go/lunch/nectarine-white-cheese-mint-salad/On this occasion of making, this is a salad of leftovers. Oh happy day.

Mighty fine leftovers we say.

5 mins | serves 2 | like, well easy

Ingredients

If you quickle the chilli in 200ml white wine vinegar and 200g sugar for about 30mins it takes away some of the kick leaving the flavour – so that’s up to you! Otherwise, words not needed.

As you know we’re meat-free monday to friday these days which is why we launched CBP back in January. We like authenticity rounds these ends and tend to steer clear of the ‘veggie products that could be meat if you had no taste buds’ in favour of real dishes that were designated veggie from the get go.

Making what we’re about to say all the stranger… but we fell in, unwittingly…

Replicating the asian flavour staples of Nam Pla aka fish sauce and shrimp paste is the last great adversary of the devoted vegan, and climate kind eater for that matter. This is a neccesary conversation we feel, just don’t get us started on quorn sausages, tempeh bacon or tofurky.

There are vegan substitutes out there but they are hard to come by in the UK. So we’ve scoured the net so you don’t have to, for the best brands and recipes to make them yourself – skip to the end for a list.

But we didn’t use any of them. It’s the weekend!

Note to peeps: remember this red curry paste for all your mid week fixes of an asian flava persuasion.

35 mins | serves 2 | ee-zee

Ingredients

400g packet courgetti

noodles for 2

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tin coconut milk

350ml vegetable stock

1 tbsp soft brown sugar

1 lime, juice, plus wedges

1 tbsp fish sauce

red curry paste:

2 shallots

2 red chillies – with seeds if you want – we did

1 lemongrass stalk

3 cloves garlic, peeled, roughly chopped

thumb size piece ginger, peeled, roughly chopped

bunch coriander, stalks and leaves seperated

1 tsp shrimp paste

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp salt flakes

Method

Curry paste first. Bash up or whizz the shallots, chillies, lemongrass, garlic, ginger and coriander stalks until it forms a coarse paste. Add the shrimp paste, ground spices and salt and bash/whizz again until it’s a bitty paste.

Heat the coconut oil in a large pan and fry the curry paste until fragrant – which is amazing – about 2 mins. Add the coconut milk, stock and sugar, bring to a bubble and simmer for 10mins or so. Season with the fish sauce and lime juice.

Meanwhile cook the noodles (2-3mins) and warm the courgetti by dipping them in the noodle water for a few seconds if you have a pasta basket. If not, tip the water over the courgetti in a colander as you drain the noodles.

Place the noodles and courgetti in the bottom of a warmed bowl. Pour the soup over to cover the courgetti, scatter with coriander leaves and chilli slices. Serve with lime wedges.

This pickle is unique to Andhra Pradesh, India where i was born (in Hyderabad) and brought up. Pickles is a way of life for the Andhras. These are childhood memories of watching and participating when our grannies, mothers, aunts would collectively make pickles for all families for the whole year. It was a group activity and the pickle portions were divided as per family requirements.

These hot red chillies (picture below) are available in Andhra Pradesh, Mahrashtra, Delhi and perhaps in some other states of India that i know not of yet. These are available only during Febraury-March-April of each year. Andhras make a special thokku (pickle/chutney) with these which is very tasty.

The shelf life of these raw and fresh plucked red chillies is very short – of less than a day. If kept for longer it starts to rot rendering it useless for any other purpose except junking.

So i buy only when i have the time to process them immediately, on the same day.

The taste of the pickle is fiery hot with a fruity flavor to it, hard to describe but easy to get hooked to. I follow a traditional Andhra recipe. It’s to die for. Best as a side accompaniment with steamed rice, Indian breads and Indian tiffins like dosa, upma, etc.

First wash the chillies and pat them dry as gently as possible, as they are delicate! Further dry them out on a cloth under the fan breeze for 2 to 3 hours to evaporate any moisture in them. Moisture and water are number 1 enemies of pickles. When dry, pull out the top stem, slit them (take off the seeds if you don’t want the pickle to be too spicy), and then cut them into 1 inch bits. Take a blender/mixer and input the chopped chillies, tamarind, salt, asofoetida, jaggery and blend them all into a course paste. Now output the paste into a steel or glass bowl. Heat gingely oil until it begins to fume. Put off flame, quickly add the mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds to the hot oil and cover it with a lid for a minute allowing mustard seeds to splutter. After about 4 or 5 minutes, pour the hot tempered oil over the course paste in the bowl and give it all a nice mix. Your red chilly pickle is ready to enjoy. The taste gets better with each passing day. Day one – it will be spicy and strong. From day three it will have started to gently age and addictive.

The Andhras do it in a different way to prolong the pickle’s shelf life. They hand pound the washed-and-dried red chillies with some rock salt and de-seeded tamarind. This course paste is stored in air-tight porcelain jars. As and when the family feels like eating it, a small portion of the paste is transferred to a bowl and seasoned with tempering it with hot gingely oil, mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds with asoefotida powder. Add a little sugar or jaggery and check for salt. Pickled and preserved but seasoned when it’s used for the day.

Tip: Even small traces of water or moisture will rot and spoil any pickle quickly.

These red chillies are difficult to find in Chennai. Silk saree weavers in olden times would come out with this lovely combo of chilli red color for body with bright green color for border in a silk saree. Almost always the Indian saree colors are inspired by nature. Wonder if these color combos are still available in silk sarees. One of my favorite color combination is this.

Couple of months back ‘Ghayal Once Again’ released in which Sunny Deol said that he introspected and thought about going back to the field in which he is the best and this time it is the ‘Baadshah’ himself going back to the early years of his career when he did unique and experimental roles instead of his current ‘money-making’ films in past few years and trust me, he nails it yet again.

Gaurav Chandna is a doppelganger of a star Aryan Khanna and resident of West Delhi but lives in a dreamy world where he thinks that he is far better than being just ‘another fan’. He wins prize money in a competition where he mimics Aryan and later goes to Mumbai with the money to meet Aryan and show him the trophy himself. There he realises that meeting Aryan isn’t easy so he takes wrong turns which makes Aryan get worried about Gaurav and advices him to go back to Delhi. Gaurav now wants a ‘Sorry’ from Aryan because he refused to waste time by meeting Gaurav and when Aryan ignores his ‘Sorry’ request, he vows to destroy his stardom.

The writer Habib Faisal deserves applause for the first half of the film but the film seemed entirely new and illogical in the second half. The first half had Gaurav playing the ‘Darr’ and second-half Gaurav was suddenly the ‘Don 2’ where he learnt the Croatian language quickly (I really want to know which site did he google to learn that fast) and sneaked in and out of anywhere like a pro (Perks of being Dilli-waala). The make-up team did a good job but according to the story, he fooled people by making them believe that he is the real Aryan and even fooled Aryan’s security and to some extent even his wife and that is where the make-up went a lot over-board as they didn’t look that similar; Aryan had a way thicker nose, less wide cheeks and less oozing-out lips. The most obvious goof-up was when the director passed on a ‘Karachi Halwa’ saying ‘Sohan Halwa’ in a scene. The VFX by Red Chillies was amazing as the double role scenes didn’t look animated or unnatural.

The lighting of each scene by the cinematographer Manu Anand was flawless; the climax scene under the moonlight and Diwali lights was scenic. The stair shot in the starting when he gets going to meet Aryan and in the end when he leaves Aryan held much depth as in both cases he went down suggesting a fall.

Maneesh Sharma, the director, made his debut with a film which boasted about the Delhi-culture (Band Baaja Baaraat) and here again in ‘Fan’ he made a Delhi character the soul of the film. The starting of the film was top-notch showing original stardom of Shah Rukh Khan and everything went amazing until the preposterous second half where Maneesh completely neglected the fact that Gaurav was throughout shown as a common guy with nothing so special that he can play an imposter in places like London and Croatia. Leaving aside the goofs, the idea of an obsessive fan might have been inspired by Robert De Niro’s version but not the story as it is different.

Shah Rukh Khan has once again portrayed his stardom but this time he nails it by his fandom. Last time people liked a SRK film was DON 2 and that wasn’t entirely for him but for the story and it has been more than 4 years that he failed to impress his fans but this time even the regular audience who aren’t his fans will surely get amazed at his portrayal of Gaurav. He is 50 plus but his acting didn’t feel like that, he was so full of energy in his acting that you might forget that he is 24 years old in Bollywood too. His expressions and mannerisms surpassed every flaw of the film and that is what is known to be ‘Carrying the film on shoulders’. The transitions in acting was absolute class.

The basic message of this film is not just for Shah Rukh’s fans but for anyone’s fan that they should have an identity of their own rather than just being a fan. The song-lessness in the film really never hindered the entertainment that the film was providing. This is a kind of film that the HIrani-gang makes, the ones which serve entertainment along with a message in an artistic way, a wholesome entertainment. ‘Fan’ proves why Old is Gold…